Do You Feel Like A Podcast Imposter?

Do you feel like a fraud? How about a hack? A phony? Join the club. The real demon you face is called imposter syndrome and many bright, talented, and respected professionals crawling to the top or those already at the top have these feelings. These feelings will come back to haunt you again and again in your professional career and you may never truly feel like you belong in the work you do no matter how successful you are.

Podcasters Are No Exception To This Rule.

Imposter syndrome stems from the belief that you're not good enough to be in the position you're in. You got there by chance, pure luck, and all the hard work you've put into your podcast seems to be thrown out the window. Imposter syndrome is your own mind working against you and all that you've built.

Podcasters are especially prone to this because they are often seen as experts, whether they like it or not, and sometimes the additional title of 'expert' throws them off the horse and into a spiral of self-doubt and feelings of being a fraud.

It's Time To Kill The Imposter

So many of us continue on this path of feeling like a fake without much thought to it. We just accept it as fact and this acceptance can sometimes destroy our true passion right in its tracks. Instead of accepting that you are a fake, it's time to address why you feel this way. Granted, these feelings will never really go away completely, but you can learn to adapt to these feelings so that they don't control your emotional state and discourage you from your passion.

But, How Do You Kill The Beast?

There are many ways you can kill the beast, but the first one starts with reason. People who experience imposter syndrome have unrealistic and irrational negative self-talk happening inside their heads. This negative self-talk makes them believe that they're really just someone wearing somebody else's achievements. Do not believe this.

You can fight this negative self-talk by using logical arguments. Question the irrational evidence that is presented in your head and use a positive counter that completely negates that negative thought. You do this by counting your successes and your baby steps. You do this by reliving all the hard moments you've gone through to be where you are today. You didn't get to your position over night, so how on earth could you be a fake?

Killing The Imposter Isn't Always Easy

Expect that there will be challenges. Podcasters spend many nights working virtually to increase their following and this can sometimes create a disconnected to how they see their successes. They're working in front of a computer and it can be very hard to count your achievements when all you did was just sit in a chair, but don't let this discourage you. Fighting your self-doubt with reason takes practice and time. Think of it as if you're building a muscle; the more you work it, the easier it will get.

You will have good days and you will have bad days. As long as you're aware of what's going on in your head, you'll find that over time the feelings of being an imposter will slowly disappear. As that happens, you will be able to celebrate more of your successes, because you know you've earned them.

About Podfly

Podfly is a pre and post-production company that creates high-quality and amazing sounding podcasts. We will help edit your show, provide show notes and transcriptions, and we will even post it to your website and iTunes when it's all done! All you have to do is contact me at Ayn@podfly.net or head over to the Podfly contact page.